Cal close to title

With a free day on Friday in Salt Lake City after Cal’s win over Utah and a day before Stanford plays the Utes, I enjoyed a spectacular day walking around town in shirt sleeves.

Yogi Berra once famously said (or didn’t) that you can observe a lot just by watching. Let me amend that to you can observe a lot just by walking. The weather was so sublime, I spent a couple hours strolling around town. Just a few blocks from my hotel, I happened upon two watering holes worth exploring, and yes, there are bars in Salt Lake City. Spots named Jackalope and Green Pig just beg inspection.

What else begs inspection is this Cal basketball team as it tries to close in on the Pac-12 regular season title. I’m sure coach Mike Montgomery is concerned how easily teams are denying Allen Crabbe shot opportunities. He went basket-less for the first time in his college career on Thursday night, not that the Bears needed him to beat the worst team in the conference.

At some point very soon, however, Cal will need Crabbe to fill it up. Montgomery is too good a coach not to have an answer for what teams are doing to Crabbe. The Bears surely will need something more than 0-for-6 shooting from Crabbe when they face Colorado in Boulder on Sunday.